Enter "Uncle Louis"

Courtly, patrician Louis St. Laurent rode a campaign train west from Ottawa last week to seek a sixth consecutive term for the Liberal government he has headed for nine years. When the train reached the hustings on the green-touched prairies, out bounded a lovable character rarely seen since the last election: not the remote Prime Minister but "Uncle Louis," the politician.

St. Laurent, who seldom gets a chance to be Uncle Louis between elections, played the role right up to the specifications recently outlined in the London Economist: "Obviously he should not appear to be too bright. He should not offer specific policies, for that brings him down to the level of ordinary politicians. He should cultivate the air of a slippered family man sucking his pipe by the fire, all passion spent. He should claim only the tolerant judgment of one long acquainted with human folly, thus tacitly asserting his own immunity from it."

The Prime Minister proclaimed the Liberals' platform for re-election on June 10 as a dedication to "peace, prosperity and social security." At whistle stops, he moved among greeters, giving out a kindly, personable dignity. For groups of schoolchildren, he had a glowing little lecture on their opportunities in Canada's future. At a rodeo in Edmonton, he introduced two pretty cowgirls as "the nieces of Uncle Louis."

St. Laurent's major opponent was out campaigning too. Barnstorming the eastern seaboard, Tory Leader John Diefenbaker hammered at the Liberal government's "neglect" of the poor-brother Maritime Provinces, and looked like a strong campaigner. But Uncle Louis was in the enviable position of playing to an electorate that is by and large prosperous. Crowed he: "The astonishing fact is that in rate of growth of population, of productivity, of national income, Canada last year outstripped even the U.S. This country is really rolling."

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